Update: Alleged attacker blames brother

KNYSNA NEWS - It wasn’t him. He was with his brother – an almost identical brother who could have committed the crime.

This was the essence of Vernon van Wyngaardt’s defence in the Knysna Circuit High Court. Van Wyngaardt faces charges of subjecting an elderly Knysna couple to robbery, brutality, kidnapping and rape in the early morning hours of August 27 last year.

The trial, which commenced on Monday, April 20 and is due to continue for two weeks, has brought to Knysna such high-profile legal representatives as Judge Lee Bozalec and state prosecutor, Advocate Jan Theron of Cape Town, as well as Advocate Gerda Marx of George.

During the cross-examination of the elderly female victim, the accused’s state appointed attorney André Kleynhans told her that his client insisted that he was innocent of all the charges and that he had never seen her prior to the trial.

Kleynhans further said that Van Wyngaardt explained that he spent the entire night of August 26 2014 with his brother at his brother's home and only left the following morning at 09:00. Interestingly, this is the same brother that Van Wyngaardt claims he strongly resembles.

Alleged crimes
In her testimony – in camera on the first and second day of trial – the neat woman told Marx that the accused (whom she assertively identified as her attacker by pointing at him) entered the couple’s Knysna home during the early morning hours of August 27.

Wielding a large knife, he allegedly forced the terrified victim to tie her 76-year-old husband’s knees and feet together with shoelaces. He then ransacked their home before shoving her equally terrified husband into the bathroom.

Her attacker then took all everything he stole, forced the woman into her vehicle and instructed her to drive to Forestry Drive in a bushy area in Concordia.

The tearful woman said that her attacker then raped her.

“I was petrified. I honestly thought that he was going to kill me,” the distraught woman answered when Marx asked her how she felt during her terrible ordeal.

He slashed one of her vehicle’s tyres, leaving her stranded in her Toyota Corolla. Fortunately, she was able to alert a Concordia resident who happened to walk past her car and came to her rescue.

A few hours later, police arrested the short, but sturdily built 27-year-old accused where he was allegedly hiding. The stolen items were also retrieved.

Among the items stolen from the couple, including jewellery, cellphones and clothing, the police also found items that had been stolen from another house.

Mistaken identity?

When Kleynhans asked the woman how certain she was that his client was in fact the culprit, she said that she was absolutely positive.

Kleynhans told her that Van Wyngaardt had instructed him to testify that he had a near-identical brother who was serving a prison term in Uniondale and that he could possibly have committed the crimes.
She was visibly flabbergasted. “But surely their fingerprints cannot be the same,” she said. Forensic experts will still testify during the trial that will run until April 30.

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ARTICLE:INGRID-LEHMENSICH BOTHA

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